'Til Death - Chris Motionless Love Story

Chapter Two - Is This a Mistake?

SALEM'S POV
I unlocked the door to my apartment as Chris stood behind me, fairly certain he was checking out my ass.

"Well," I said as we walked in, "it's not much." My apartment was a small one bedroom duplex. It opened up into a living room, with a small kitchen to the side, and then a short hallway that led to the bedroom with a bathroom attached. There was also a small backyard that was accessed through the bedroom. It was an odd layout, but the place was small and cheap. Perfect for just me and my small shih tzu.

"Cute dog." Chris complimented as Gizmo, my white shih tzu, jumped on his legs.

"Thanks, her name is Gizmo." I disclosed. He smiled at the familiar name from his childhood. I didn't know a single person who didn't catch the reference from the classic Gremlins. It was my favorite movie.

"Did you get her when you moved to town?" He asked. I bit my lip and squinted my eyes in guilt. He shook his head and laughed. "You stole the man's dog, too? Now that, that is a bitch move."

"In my defense, I bought that dog everything!" I defended myself with a smile, I did not regret that. It was the only thing I did not regret. I popped open a bottle of wine and poured myself a rather tall glass while Chris took a seat on the couch. "Do you do wine?" I shouted from the kitchen.

"No, I'm not a drinker. I'll just take water." Suddenly I felt bad about my embarrassing amount of wine bottle's sitting around. I didn't want him to think I was an alcoholic or anything. I took him his glass of water and then kicked off my shoes, sitting with my feet beneath me and grasping my wine glass. His eyes wandered around the apartment, looking at the art and pictures hanging on the wall.

"Did you paint all of those?" He asked, pointing to the wall that was covered in canvases. I nodded my head. They were rather dark paintings, each one representing whatever I was feeling at the moment. The one that caught his eye in particular was the oil painting of the heart being squeezed by barbed wire so tightly it was bleeding out.

"I actually just finished that one yesterday. I haven't had time to start anything new lately, though. There's just too much going on." His eyes were now on me.

"You're an amazing artist. All of them are beautiful. Just like the one that made them." His words made me blush, but I quickly hid it behind my large wine glass. I decided to play some music to fill any awkward silence, shuffling through my playlist. What got him was the fact that we went from Taylor Swift to Slipknot to Eminem within the first three songs of the playlist. Though, he didn't seem to mind any of them. Well, maybe the Taylor Swift, but he vibed with Eminem shockingly. We sat on the couch, laughing and sharing stories back and forth about awful dates, childhood memories, and such.

"Wait, tell me about the arsonist again?" He said as he laughed. I sighed.

"Okay, so I dated a guy who burned down the local putt putt with a group of friends when he was 16 years old. He was just shy of his 17th birthday, and got fucking lucky. In the state of Texas you are legally an adult at 17, and therefore get tried as an adult. He just got probation and ankle monitor." Chris seemed appalled by my taste in men so far.

"That wasn't a red flag when you met him?!"

"He always wore jeans and cowboy boots! How was I supposed to know?"

"Well, that's a red flag in and of itself!"

"No, he was actually super sweet. He was a good guy. That was the boyfriend that I dumped before moving here." I looked down into my wine glass, and Chris bit his tongue. An awkward silence filled the room, and he looked around, spotting the Xbox games that I had stacked up on a shelf.

"Do you wanna play Mortal Kombat?" He asked, trying to get us out of the awkward situation.

"Oh, I'll beat your ass in it, Cerulli." His eyes went wide with a smile as he got up to set it all up. He grabbed the controllers, and handed one to me. I did in fact beat his ass in Mortal Kombat. Multiple times. His smile still stayed so bright, though. Almost as if he were just happy to be in someone's company.
The time flew by as we played round after round because he was determined to win, but we shut it off once I realized it was already one in the morning. We had really spent that last five hours or so together, and it felt... nice. Like I had a someone for the first time in a long time. Someone who wasn't going to judge me for what I had done, they just accepted it as part of my story. I stretched my arms and yawned, then stood up to take my empty wine glass to the kitchen. Chris followed with his glass of water. I rinsed out the wine glass and sat it on the countertop to dry, then grabbed Chris' glass from him and placed it in the dishwasher. He smiled as I bent down, my shirt hanging open as I did so, exposing my cleavage.

"Is this your way of kicking me out, Ms. Alastair?" He asked with a smirk as he leaned against my counter. I laughed a little and looked at the time on my oven.

"Well, Mr. Cerulli, it is one in the morning. We both need to be up early for work."

"I own the place, I don't have to go in if I don't want."

"That wouldn't be really responsible of you."

"Or I could just crash here, wear the same suit tomorrow." His words stumped me, and it showed on my face. My jaw practically hit the floor. He finally laughed and lightly grabbed my arm. "Relax, Salem, I'm joking. Though you're incredibly beautiful, I'd never sleep with an employee. Morally it just isn't right. I'll see you at 9am?" My brain had to have a second to buffer, almost as if it were a slow internet browser.

"Y-yeah. 9am sharp." I finally answered him. His smile was soft and genuine, and we started walking to the door. He turned to face me with his hand on the knob.

"Great. Oh, and Salem?"

"Yes?"

"I want you to meet with a family with me tomorrow. You're really too pretty to keep hidden in the back." For someone who just said it was morally wrong to be with an employee, he sure was flirtatious. Maybe he was just like that with all of his employees? They were all female, except for the rather old man who was just a funeral director. He already wasn't too fond of me, nor was he fond of Chris, but he came with the transfer over to Chris from his parents.

"Of course. Have a goodnight, Chris. See you tomorrow morning." He smiled and the grabbed my hand, kissing the top of it. It was quite the gesture, but still not against what he had set his morals to.
The next day as we sat in the arrangement room with the family, his eyes kept catching mine. We finally broke out of the room to get the obituary typed, which he had me do in his office on a laptop so that we could feed off each other's information.

"You look stunning today, Ms. Alastair." He said in a soft tone as he looked over the contract for the family. I lightly giggled, still looking down at the screen as I typed away.

"You don't look too bad yourself, Mr. Cerulli." His eyes still kept gearing over to me as I finished typing the obituary and printed it off at his printer behind his desk. When I walked over to grab it he grabbed my hand.

"How did you finish that so fast?" Chris asked, as he was still working on the contract adjustments to make it match with the pre-need policy.

"I wasn't busy fraternizing with the person across the desk." I stated, earning a wide eyed response from him. I gazed my eyes over to his computer screen, where I noticed his numbers were still not matching up. "Move, I'll fix it." I demanded. He rolled his chair back, allowing me to bend over and start fixing his contract. He stood up, and leaned down with me to see what I was doing exactly, his face just centimeters away from mine. We were practically cheek to cheek. After he realized what I was doing and how I was getting it to add up, he looked at my face and brushed a stray hair behind my ear.

"Can I tell you something rather a abrupt and inappropriate?" He asked in a low voice. I bit my lip and nodded my head as our eyes met. "You have no clue how badly I want to fuck you on this desk right now." He murmured into my ear. It was indeed an intriguing thought, he was a rather nice looking man, and I mean, I hadn't been with anyone in months. My breath was sharp as his eyes held mine, and then his hand slid against my cheek. Surely he was just messing around... Right? Our foreheads were touching, and noses brushing up against each others, then he finally made his move. He softly placed his lips onto mine.